Trip home from Indiana continued

June 18: We got up at our hotel and had a bit of breakfast. I had hoped to get up early enough to pop down and say "hi" to friends at CCA, but the late night before meant that sessions already began by the time we would have gone down there. Our first stop was to CUW to see Lamb 1's godmother that works in the library there. We stopped in and saw her, a Looper that works there, and there was one library employee that still worked there that I knew from my time working in the library from college. We gave ourselves a fast tour of the campus to see what has changed since we were there a few years ago.

Lamb 1's godmother said that his godfather was really hoping that we would go downtown Milwaukee and see where he works. He runs the shipping for Lakefront Brewery so we got a tour and he gave us some of their root beer. He had presents for the Lambs including some icons that survived their house fire several years ago. The Lambs had no idea who was on these icons, but they will learn. Lamb 1's godfather was so happy to see the Lambs and show them where he works.

We had not planned on this stop to tour the Brewery shipping and I don't think the Lambs really appreciated a Brewery tour, but they did enjoy the root beer! We got on the road much later than we had planned, early afternoon. We stopped at Target for a few snacks for the road. We stopped at a grocery store hoping to buy the Lambs more Lakefront Brewery root beer but they didn't have it. They did have Lakefront Brewery beer so Ram bought a case for himself (shh...it's not Paleo!). We stopped for supper at Chick-fil-A and other than necessary stops the rest of the day was spent driving. We arrived at my cousin's house in NE at about midnight.

To be continued...

Trip Home from Indiana

June 17: My dad teaches a Wednesday morning Bible class. The location has changed over the years, but they go to a cafe where everyone orders what they want and my dad teaches class while they eat breakfast. The first week we were there Lamb 1 attended and impressed the class with his willingness to read out loud and answer questions. The second week both Lamb 1 and 2 attended. The day we left Fort Wayne no Lambs attended Bible class, but Ram gave my dad a ride home after Bible class as my mom had a doctor appointment.

Ram took Lamb 1 and 2 to basketball camp and then went to pick up my dad. He picked up bagels and yogurt for our drive when he picked up my dad. We spent the morning finishing up packing and finishing a few tasks to help my parents. We shipped home our 6 boxes. We picked up the Lambs and said goodbye to the coaches. This took a little longer than I would have liked and we weren't on the road until almost 12:30pm.

Our plans here were a little crazy. We hadn't been to WI for a few years and I really wanted to see a few friends. My mom thought it was absolutely crazy to go home to ID by way of WI. But I really wanted to go. Our plans were to stop and see my friend Jennifer for about an hour or two and then attend Divine Service at Peace, Sussex, WI. We weren't able to attend the entire catechism symposium (CCA), but we thought it would be worth going to Divine Service and seeing everyone afterwards. I really thought this would be possible with the time change gaining an hour for us.

Traffic was terrible and it took us much longer to get through Chicago than I had planned. My friend, Jennifer, had moved and it took us longer to find her new house than I planned. All 3 Lambs were sitting in the same row of the minivan which made a few more arguments than normal which meant a couple more stops to make everyone happy. We pulled into Jennifer's driveway about the same time as we would have needed to leave for Divine Service. We made the quick decision to just visit Jennifer and cancel our plans to go to church. I hadn't had time to contact very many people and the few that I did contact said they weren't going to be able to attend CCA this year.

The last time I heard from Jennifer I heard that she had a baby boy and he was in NICU for several days after he was born but after that he was fine. That baby boy is now 3 years old. We were so overdue for a visit!

I was so glad we were able to stop and see Jennifer's new house and the Lambs were able to see their animals. Jennifer had prepared supper for us, chicken that was butchered the day before from their farm, potatoes, and vegetables. It was so good, especially after eating too much fast food on our trip. When Jennifer's husband got home he was shocked that we were there as that was not the original plan. Then he joined the conversation and the kids played and the adults talked until 11pm. Dan and Ram shared a bottle of wine that Dan had received as a gift. They joked that we should spend the night there at that point, but we had reserved a hotel close to the church we had planned to go to. We got to our hotel at midnight.

Jennifer shared a kombucha mushroom with me before we left. She has 10 batches of kombucha going at once! I came home and got two batches going. I changed locations for my kombucha at my house and so far the kombucha looks really healthy. It has been nice to freely share kombucha with everyone and not ration it because it is so expensive at the store. Plus I think mine tastes better than store bought! We'll see how long I can keep up two batches at once...

To be continued...

Last days of Indiana vacation

June 16: This was our last full day in Fort Wayne. In the morning Ram did some handyman jobs for my parents. He hung new hooks by the back door. He removed all the screws and nails from all the walls of the house. I rushed to finish packing what we would take home.

Lamb 1 and 2 went to basketball camp in the morning and we all went to pick them up. We went to Lunchbox Cafe for lunch since Ram couldn't go the week before. Both times we got the last piece of vinegar pie and had to share it with all of us. We stopped by All Saints bookstore and Ram bought a few things, but we didn't let the Lambs buy any more crucifix necklaces. I also bought Advent candles and we put them in the cooler for the drive home. I had Advent candles on my list to replace so I was glad to check that off my to do list.

We ran a few errands in the afternoon-Costco for a few supplies for the trip and gas, bought mulch for my parents, bought more bubble wrap for packing, Half Price Books to trade in a few more books and give Ram a chance to look there even though he didn't buy anything.

I did laundry and finished packing what we were taking home. We mostly loaded the car, just leaving out our clothes and sleeping bags for the Lambs.

We had planned to get a trailer hitch installed by Toyota and rent a trailer to take stuff home. Toyota had a glitch during June and hitches installed by them would not be legal to drive. They assured us this was temporary, but we needed it done in June. I had considered taking a dresser home when I thought we would have a trailer. When it was clear a trailer was not going to work plus it would have been really expensive we went to plan B. Plan B was to not take any furniture home and ship books home that did not fit. We had all 3 Lambs sit in the same row and put the back seats in the minivan down. We actually had quite a bit of room behind the Lambs. We ended up shipping 6 boxes home. 5 of those boxes were media mail so not expensive. All the boxes arrived one week after we shipped them which was only a few days after we arrived home. I hadn't even finished unpacking what we had brought home in the minivan when they arrived. After Ram shipped the boxes I realized we should have squeezed that 6th box that didn't have books in the minivan to save money. I don't regret shipping boxes home because we were able to bring all the books that we wanted home. We also brought home my grandma's scrapbooks and lots of pictures. After the Lambs went to bed we addressed and wrapped in packing tape the boxes that we were shipping home. That took a long time to wrap all sides of 6 boxes in packing tape. We went to bed ready to start going home the next day.

To be continued...

Indiana Vacation Continued

June 15: After we dropped off Lamb 1 and 2 at basketball camp, Lamb 3 and Ewe went to the zoo with my cousin's family. I wasn't too excited about going to the zoo in the heat and humidity with a forecast of rain, but we couldn't think of anything else to do together because the science museum was closed on Mondays. My cousin really wanted us to take our children to the zoo together, just like Sue and I were taken to the zoo by our grandmothers when we were children. She ended up being disappointed that they had changed much of the zoo since we were kids.

Lamb 3 was in a rotten mood, because we were up until midnight the night before. He didn't want to do anything at the zoo. This picture was how he felt, he just wanted to crawl in the egg and go to sleep.

Sue has a memory from the zoo when we were children. My grandma said I could drive the jeep and she really wanted to. Her grandma told her to be polite and let me drive. Then the grandmas decided to drive the jeep one way and walk the other way. So Sue never got to drive the jeep. I don't remember that but she does. She was very disappointed that she didn't have a chance to drive a jeep now, the jeeps are there for photos but not for driving any more. While her son is driving the jeep in this photo, it is how it should be, it was my turn to sit in the back!

After a couple of hours at the zoo because it was raining by that point and Lamb 3 was in no mood to be at the zoo, we left but Sue's family stayed a little longer and saw a little more. My dad had picked up the Lambs from basketball camp. We picked up lunch from Subway and met Sue's family at the Seminary. We ate lunch and some of the kids played on the Seminary playground. We decided to go for a walk through the woods. When we got over there it was very muddy so the walk was canceled. The Lambs were very disappointed that we went to the Midwest but we had no chance to walk through a forest. Here are some pictures we took before we said Goodbye to Sue's family.

We went home and rested for a few hours. I forced Lamb 2 to take a nap. Then we met Lamb 3's godfather, Darin, at a Tincaps baseball game. His godfather had gotten free tickets from Thrivent along with Tincaps cash that could be used for food and gift shop. The game ended up getting rained out but we used the Tincaps cash to buy food. We got nachos and cotton candy as treats. The Lambs had supper before we went to the game but it was fun to let them get junk food. Then we went in the gift shop and spent the rest of the Tincaps cash Thrivent gave us on a t-shirt for Lamb 2, baseball cards for Lamb 3, and a baseball for Lamb 1. Lamb 1 had gotten a Tincaps shirt at Once Upon a Child the week before. We stayed and talked to Darin and his wife until we were sure the game was rained out. It was a fun evening even though we didn't get to see a game. We were talking and I didn't even think to take a picture of Lamb 3 and Darin. Because it got rained out I never got to see a Tincaps game on this trip. Darin planned to keep our tickets and invite some friends to join him for another game since we were leaving town. I think he also had a little of our Tincaps cash leftover for another game. Thank you, Thrivent, for a fun evening!

After the game it was finally time to pick up Ram from the airport. I was nervous with the weather that his flight might be delayed but he was right on time. We tried to look for a place to get him food but everything like Culvers was closed so we just went home and he ate leftovers. When we got home Ewe and the Lambs went to bed right away after our late night before. We were glad that Ram was back with us that evening.

To be continued...

I am Third!

When I taught in the classroom one summer I took a class at the Lutheran High School. It was called IMPACT and it met for a couple of weeks in June after school got out. It was strange to be "back in the classroom" at my high school, especially because some of the leaders of IMPACT were my high school teachers. When we had breaks during IMPACT, I saw the elementary age boys having basketball camp. It seemed to be a well organized camp. I never imagined some day my boys would attend that basketball camp.

I am on e-mail lists for news from my high school and college. I noticed my high school was advertising their summer camps. I wondered if time wise it would work for the boys to attend a camp while we were in Fort Wayne. It did almost work, they did have to miss the last couple of days of camp. Lamb 1 was very interested in basketball camp so I planned to sign him up. It was expensive so I planned to just sign up Lamb 1. Lamb 2 was also interested so I tried to talk him into tennis camp because it was cheaper. But Lamb 2 also wanted to attend BB camp. I couldn't believe I was writing a check for that much money for two Lambs to attend a camp, but as Lamb 2 said, we might not ever be in Fort Wayne at the right time for them to attend basketball camp again. Lamb 3 was not old enough for the camp and he didn't want to attend any way. It was good for the drive to IN to have basketball camp to look forward to.

The leader of the camp was the CLHS basketball coach and he had several high school and college boys and coaches from other Lutheran elementary schools helping him. I had Coach Reinking's son in my first grade class. Jacob is now in college. Jacob also helped with the camp.

They divided the boys up by grade level. Lamb 2's group went over to the nearby elementary school most of the days to have more room to play games. I never went over there, I just picked them up at CLHS. On the last day Ram and Lamb 3 went over to see if they could see them. They were practicing dribbling then so that is the only picture of Lamb 2 at basketball camp that I have.

Lamb 3 is the same age as Jacob was when I had him in class.

Lamb 2, Jacob, and Lamb 1
Lamb 1 was not in Jacob's group but he practiced in the same gym as Jacob's group so he worked with him more than Lamb 2 did.

Each morning began with a devotion. The theme of the camp was "I am Third!" and that was on their t-shirts. The theme is that you need to place God first, others second, and yourself third in life.

A few of the days I took my camera along and arrived early before camp was done for the day. I got several good photos of Lamb 1 playing. It made me so happy to hear the rest of Lamb 1's team cheering for him and encouraging him during the game. The boys really did practice "I am Third" during the games.

We had planned to leave early in the morning on the second Wednesday of camp which meant they would miss the last three days of camp. They were having such a good time that we decided we could let them stay for Wednesday. I thought with the time change we would be fine to arrive at our destination on Wednesday. I will blog about what happened on Wednesday in another post. I don't regret letting them stay for another day of camp. I feel bad they had to miss the last two days of camp but we needed to start driving home. They are already begging to go to basketball camp at CLHS next summer.

My dad went and picked up their certificates and ribbons on the last day of camp since we couldn't be there. We liked seeing the coaches comments about our Lambs on the back of the certificates. Both Lambs really improved their basketball skills during camp. Lamb 1 would like to play basketball this fall.

Indiana vacation continued

June 14: This morning we attended church with my parents at St. Paul's. There was a teacher being honored at retirement at the early service so we attended late service. They served cake in-between services so we went to that. I also had the Lambs bring their piano books and we snuck in the choir room for the Lambs to play their recital pieces for Grandpa and Grandma. I was so tired and so were the Lambs by this point in our vacation. Lamb 3 and Ewe both almost fell asleep during the service. I didn't know anybody besides my parents at the service we attended so the Lambs were happy that we could leave immediately after church. When we got home I took a nap.
I noticed that the Historic Old Fort was open this weekend so I took the Lambs for a short visit. We had to park far away and it started sprinkling as we walked there. By the time we were inside the Fort grounds it started really raining. As a child I was the most interested in hearing the doctor at the Fort talk about his work. The doctor and his staff were packing up as we got there, they didn't want to be in the rain another day. We were able to peek in some of the other buildings. We did stand in the rain and talk to a man cleaning his rifle about his gun. Finally we went to the Sweet Shop and bought some treats for Ram and the Lambs. I decided to not force the Lambs to see anything else and we would go home. By then it was really pouring and we were soaked by the time we got back to the car.

In the evening my cousin from MI came down with her family. We met them at their hotel and all the kids went swimming for hours. We forced them out of the pool to eat pizza and then they went swimming some more. My cousin and I went up to their hotel room to talk while her husband watched the kids swimming. I hadn't seen her since her husband took his first Call in 2002. I had never met my goddaughter that is 11. It was so fun to get together and we finally left their hotel room and got home about midnight.

Poor Kate was the only girl

Little Nathan almost 4
Big Nathan 7

Nick and Lamb 3 are close in age

Lamb 2 and Nick

My goddaughter, Kate

My cousin, Sue

So much happened the last few days we were in Fort Wayne that I will just post one day today.

To be continued...

Indiana Vacation Continued

June 11: This day was much more successful than the afternoon before. The last few days we were in Fort Wayne are a blur of us trying to get as much done that we could before we left. In the morning Lamb 1 and 2 attended basketball camp. Lamb 3 helped Grandma make fruit kabobs for a ladies event at church.

In the morning I mowed the entire lawn. I had planned to mow until it started raining but the weather held up long enough for me to mow everything. I took the Lambs to lunch at a restaurant Ram and I liked when we lived in Fort Wayne that is now in a new location. After lunch we went to All Saints Bookstore to look for a few specific items for Ram and for our church. The owner recognized me right away and was shocked that we were shopping in his store. The Lambs decided they wanted crucifix necklaces so I pointed them toward the $3-4 section figuring we could get chains at home. Then began the begging and they were successful in talking me into two each. I couldn't believe my Lambs were begging for crucifixes!
When we finally made it out of there we ran some errands to help my parents. As we were leaving Costco the Lambs asked where our next stop was. Another shopper overheard me say that we were going to the liquor store for boxes but they would need to stay in the car. I got a big lecture about leaving children in hot cars. She didn't know we were just stopping to pick up boxes and the back of the minivan would be open loading boxes. But there was really no other choice since under 21 is not allowed in the store at all. I did laugh because in MN when Ram took our Lambs in the liquor store they gave them candy or stickers! We did go to the liquor store and they had a big pile of boxes ready for me. I took all of them and we used most of them before we left Fort Wayne. We were also happy that the Uhaul store had picture boxes this day.

June 12: Lamb 1 and 2 attended basketball camp in the morning. We seemed to follow a pattern of a great day and then a not so great day. My mom decided to hold a garage sale with just a few of the bigger items including a dresser. This morning it poured rain so we only sold $5 before the rain began. We decided to wait until the next day to continue the garage sale. My dad had parked on the next street so the driveway would be clear for customers shopping at the garage sale. When he went to move his car he had a big  parking ticket. He parked in the same spot he always parked in whenever they had company. I had parked in the same spot the day before he got a ticket. There was really no way to fight it so he had to pay it. We think they were enforcing parking rules more because there were several garage sales in the neighborhood. But there was not a no parking sign and we didn't really think it was fair. Another reason why my parents need to move...
We helped my mom completely load up her car and she drove to several thrift shops and delivered everything. In the afternoon and evening we stayed inside and helped there. I packed almost all of their pictures that were hanging on the wall so that job was completed. It seemed weird to be a Friday night and I was at home packing and doing laundry for my boys.

June 13: In the morning my mom was much more successful at her garage sale. She sold this dresser. The Lambs enjoyed playing cards with Grandma while they helped with the garage sale. Total made on both days of the garage sale was a little more than the cost of the parking ticket so we considered it a success.

My dad had several slides in trays so we decided to pull out the slide projector and figure out which ones would be worth putting on DVD like their wedding and which ones were not worth putting on DVD like his presentations from when he worked for IBM. When we pulled out the slide projector he said he didn't know if it worked. The power cord was not with the slide projector. I really think that it was in the garage and I threw it out a few days before that. So we couldn't look at the slides. My sister thought that Best Buy had a cord and we thought that would be the easiest solution. So on this day the Lambs and I went to Best Buy. Their tech guys were bored so they spent about 45 minutes trying to help me without success. They told me that Kodak went out of business so they don't have any idea how to get a power cord. So the slides are sitting at my house and I'm unsure what we are going to do with the whole project. Do you have an old slide projector that works or a cord I could borrow? I may need to invest in a machine to make the slides digital.

To be continued...